Privacy Policy

Home Privacy Policy
  1. This document tells you how OPAL will use any personal information you give us.  This is called a ‘privacy notice’
  2. Usually we ask for information about you when you ask us to help you with a problem/issue you want help to sort out
  3. If you ask OPAL to help you with a problem or join any of our groups and activities we will need to keep some personal information about you
  4. We will only ask you for information that we need to help or support you to make decisions or to stay safe whilst taking part in activities with us. We will explain to you why we need this information
  5. This may include;
    • Your name and contact details so we can keep in touch with you
    •  How old you are? Your ethnic background  and sex
    •  Details about the issue/problem you want support with
    • Your views on what is best for a friend or relative we are supporting
  6.  If you don’t want to give us certain information, you don’t have to
  7.  We save your information on a safe computer system. Sometimes we may have information on our email or computers
  8.  All of this information is kept in the UK
  9.  We also keep your information in files along with records of our meetings with you
  10.  These records are stored in locked filing cabinets in offices which are locked when we are not in work
  11.  All of our staff are trained on how to keep your information safe
  12.  We use your information to help you to solve your issue or problem
  13.  We might also use your information to;
    • tell people about our work, but we never use your name or any information which might help people to recognise you
    • give information to our funders about the work we do – but nobody will be able to identify you from  this information
    •  help us improve our services by looking at how many people we help
    •  look into a complaint
  14.  When we close your file and stop working with you we will store your information safely and securely for 7 years.  We won’t make any changes to this, unless you get back in touch with us
  15.  You have the right to look at any information we have about you. If you want to do this we might have to take out any information about other people (third parties) that is in your file.  If you want a copy of your file you need to let us know so we can send it out to you within 30 days. This will not cost you anything
  16.  If you think the information we hold on you is wrong we will change the information, or make a note of what you think is wrong. We will let you know why we have done this and for what reason
  17.  If you ask us to get rid of your information we will do this but sometimes we have to keep information by law. If we do, we will explain the reason why
  18.  Usually we would only share your information with your permission
  19.  This might be because we cannot help you with your problem and need to ask for help from another organisation. We need your permission do this, for example we might need to talk to your doctor or social worker
  20.  If we stop being the advocacy service in Oldham for people with learning disabilities, you can choose whether you want us to pass your information to the new service, this is called data portability
  21.  There may be times we have to share your information without your permission, this will only be if;
    • something you told us makes us think you or someone else are at serious risk of harm.
    • we might have to share information because the law says we have to, like a Court Order
    •  to protect someone’s life, this is called ‘vital interests’- for example this might be if we have to share your personal information during an emergency
    •  we may use it when OPAL as a charity wants to tell people more about what we do. This is called ‘legitimate interests’- this could be numbers or case studies for people who give us money (funders). Nobody would be able to recognise you from this information
    •  to defend our legal right- for example to  to try and sort out a serious complaint
  22.  if your information is seen by anyone you haven’t said is ok we will tell you about it as soon as possible
  23.  we will also tell you what we will be doing about it
  24.  we will also tell the Information Commissioner (who manages the General Data Protection Regulation law) what happened and tell you how you can complain if you want to
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